Colts have until Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET to cut Peyton

Posted by Mike Florio on March 6, 2012, 10:00 AM EST

AP

I’ve got to give Jason La Canfora of NFL Network credit for being the first person in the media to realize that the Colts have a window after the final due date for Peyton Manning’s $28 million option bonus to cut him and still avoid owing him the money.

However, the window is much, much narrower than La Canfora has described it.

But even Saturday isn’t good enough. As we suspected, and as NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirms, all business for the current week must be transacted by 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 9. Thus, if Manning is still on the roster as of 4:01 p.m. ET on Friday, March 9, there’s no way the Colts can cut him before Monday morning.

So, at the very latest, G.M. Ryan Grigson (pictured, with Manning fittingly looming over his shoulder) should dump Peyton on Friday afternoon, if the plan is to cut him. To be as safe as possible, the Colts should just do it now. The only plausible reason to delay the move would be to give Peyton less time to hit the market before free agency opens, and/or more time for owner Jim Irsay to change his mind and pay Peyton $28 million to ensure he doesn’t play for another team.

It’s simply not worth risking the possibility of paying him $28 million AND seeing him play for another team.

I totally agree that the Colts shouldn’t push the deadline. I’ve written many contracts and worked closely with various attorneys from our Office of General Counsel over many years and one thing is clear to me. Words get interpreted in different ways. Unless you have absolutes expressed in a contract, it’s all open to interpretation and proof of intent. It would be a real a$$ burn if the Colts got stuck with a $28 million cap hit for nothing in return. Because I believe Manning is done, the Colts shouldn’t push it any further.

I see P. Manning going to either the Texans or the Cardinals. The Bidwells have a history of being rather cheap so the Texans makes more sense if they can figure a way to massage Matt Schaub’s feelings.

Are you sure that’s Ryan Grigson? He’s not exactly a fitness buff, but I’ve never seen him looking that bloated, pale, sweaty or balding. He’s actually an impressive guy, in person at least. Either you guys were a bit harsh with that photo selection, or this Manning thing is stressing him out to the point of decay.

Are you sure that’s Ryan Grigson? He’s not exactly a fitness buff, but I’ve never seen him looking that bloated, pale, sweaty or balding. He’s actually an impressive guy, in person at least. Either you guys were a bit harsh with that photo selection, or this Manning thing is stressing him out to the point of decay.

well it’s a tough situation. If the Colts cut him they’re it’s like saying he’ll never play football again. Except everyone is guessing his next team, and then there’s the throwing videos, so everyone on earth is assuming he WILL play again.

So if he plays again why cut him?

28mil and Andrew luck breathing down his neck.

The Colts have huge money tied up in this 28 mil and the rest of Peyton’s contract, and have huge money tied up in Andrew Luck, and btw it’s important to pay other people on a team that supposed to be playing for a championship.

I think they have a major accounting problem for the umpteenth time they don’t know what to do with

I see P. Manning going to either the Texans or the Cardinals. The Bidwells have a history of being rather cheap so the Texans makes more sense if they can figure a way to massage Matt Schaub’s feelings.
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Apparently you haven’t been keeping up with the Texans much. Manning would be a terrible move for Houston. The Texans offense is based on the running game, play-action passing, and roll-outs. That is not Peyton’s style. He is a 100% Pocket Passer.

Kubiak is not a flexible offensive coach. He knows what he wants his offense to look like. And it took 6 seasons for that offense to finally become what he was trying to build in the first place. As a Texans fan I’d been frustrated for 5 seasons because he wouldn’t change his game plans. Now I finally see why. So why would Kubiak want to bring in the highest priced QB’s on market who doesn’t fit the model of game play for his offense??

Not to mention the fact that we simply don’t have the cap room to win a bidding war for Manning.

If no league business can be transacted on weekends, wouldn’t “second day before” the end of the league year mean second business day, i.e., Friday? In which case they’d still have to cut him by March 8, because if he’s on the roster Friday they owe him the bonus.

Surely Irsay and company know exactly what they’re going to be doing with Manning. There aren’t any questions that will gain clarity by Friday, nor are there any variables in this that will change by then.

Manning is toast, cut him and let everybody move on. Why dabble with the deadline, he’s done being a Colt… and whoever is stoopid enough to sign him for 2012, you deserve what you get and good luck in the 2013 Barkley/Jones sweepstakes.

So what is the difference between the language that describes the window between “the second day after the Super Bowl and the fourth day before the end of the 2011 league year” and “the second day before the end of the 2011 league year”?

If the money can be paid any time between 2-days-post-SB and 4-days-pre-EoLY, then the implication seems to be that it *can’t* be paid outside of that window… which a 2-day-pre-EoLY deadline would describe.

In effect, I think the difference is that the Colts must pay Peyton before the 8th (the 4th-day-pre-EoLY), even if they have until Friday @ 4:00 (the business-effective 2nd-day-pre-EoLY) to decide to cut him. Since the money isn’t affirmatively earned until the 2nd-day-pre-EoLY, Peyton would have to then turn around and repay the money if the Colts decided to part ways.

I guess what I’m getting at is that this doesn’t change anything. If they don’t pay him by Thursday, the language of the contract seems to say that they cannot pay him, so that is effectively the termination of the contract. On the other hand, they could pay him and then still cut him within 24 hours… as unlikely as that is. I can’t see the Colts paying the $28 million just to have another 24 hours (from Thursday the 8th @ 4PM to Friday the 9th @ 4PM) to think about what they want to do.

If they don’t pay him by the 8th, we’ll know he’s gone.
If they *do* pay him, we won’t be sure that he’s staying until the 9th (@ 4PM).

There is really no point in not making a decision right now one way or another. Initially, I was sympathetic with the Colts because it’s tough to cut a legend for the future good of the team, and yet they have to do it. Yet, but dragging it out before giving him the axe, they are coming off as jerks.

Manning is toast, cut him and let everybody move on. Why dabble with the deadline, he’s done being a Colt… and whoever is stoopid enough to sign him for 2012, you deserve what you get and good luck in the 2013 Barkley/Jones sweepstakes.

This story on the non-exercise fee within the contract was reported on in January by Andrew Brandt of ESPN, and by Chris Mortensen on NFL32 a few weeks back. Jason LaCanfora is not the first to report this.